Tips and ideas on raising feeders

[Symphony_grace]

I'm soon going to be raising my own supply since pet shop prices are ridiculous!!
I raised rats before, so I have some idea of what to do, but some advice and miscellaneous is also appreciated.

 

[cornsnakeforsale_com]

The biggest problem I find with mice is cannibalism. What has worked well for me is to get some young mice from a pet store, enough for a couple of cages. Breed those mice together, but don't consider those your breeders. Raise a new litter from each cage and select a male and a few females and start your colonies with those (removing all other mice from the new colonies). Those new colonies will do much better than the others who you just threw together since they were raised together since birth. Hope that make sense. Other than that, clean cages and water, a steady supply of food and you'll be golden.

 

[Symphony_grace]

It makes plenty of sense, but my problem is I have room for only one cage. At least for now.
So what you're saying is that I get rid of the old generations and make the new generations the breeders once I begin this? It may be possible. We just need feeders.

 

[cornsnakeforsale_com]

It may work to keep the first group, but they seem to usually do worse than the ones you grow up together. It's just lame when you put a lot of time and effort in just to watch the mice eat their own babies.

 

[Symphony_grace]

You have a point there. Ok thank you very much! I will try that!

 

[Symphony_grace]

I have a new question on this.
I have a male and female together in one 10 gal. tank. Am I able to add another female in there somewhere? If so, when?

 

[cornsnakeforsale_com]

Well, you might have these same issues, but logistically, yes there's room for 2 or 3 girls in there. Adding females (or any mice) to existing setups is always risky.

 

[Symphony_grace]

Even if I cleaned out the old bedding, set in fresh bedding, and put the new female in first?

 

[cornsnakeforsale_com]

Sure, they can recognize each other or know that it's not a mouse they are familiar with, or want to be around. I mean, you could put them in and see what happens, but usually they'll just fight and even if they settle down it doesn't mean they won't eat each others' babies.

My first point about all of this was that throwing some mice together and calling it a colony may or may not work. Growing up the young ones together seems to work much better.

 

[Buzzard]

I so agree with raising the babies to make your colony with....

As far as space, You could always build a little "rack type system...Like this



They hold 2 small colonies of 1 male and 3 females easily

 

[Symphony_grace]

Aww. I thought I could build the harem colony since I just learned it before I started! Oh well. But we have them in a 10 gal. tank that supports them quite happily as I see. Thanks for the suggestion Buzzard!

 

[pheonix]

Racks are the way to go. But not really necessary until you get more snakes. If you are feeding adult mice or sub-adults you will need grow out tubs/tanks. You can keep the weaner males together, but don't mix generations. They'll fight. So feed off your males before you feed off the females. How many snakes do you have? if you are feeding live you will probably have a lot of extras, which isn't bad in sitself, but you'll run out of room. Just make sure they have water and feed. And the feed needs to be about 18% or a little higher protein so the momma's don't eat the pups. First time moms might eat their pups so give them another chance or 2. With mice, don't take any body out of the colony. If you are doing rats, i can't help you. This is all from my experience, which has only been about 4 months. But i've had over 60 pups. Plus an ungodly amount of time reading about this stuff. Hope this helps!